


This World, From Far Away

by ferric



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Family, M/M, Reincarnation AU, Slice of Life, friends - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-29
Updated: 2013-12-29
Packaged: 2018-01-06 15:10:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1108329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ferric/pseuds/ferric
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Grown up Eren and Levi adopted little girl Mikasa.</p>
            </blockquote>





	This World, From Far Away

**Author's Note:**

> For an anon prompt: "Grown up Eren and Levi adopts little girl Mikasa and Mikasa is always clinging to Eren and doesn't let Levi near him while she's around?" 
> 
> I wrote something a bit different.
> 
> [Translation into Chinese](http://maggie-home.lofter.com/post/2151df_d2741d) by the lovely Natsu.

Mikasa’s eighth birthday party went without a hitch, thanked to Levi’s obsessive need to keep everything organized and Eren’s need to make up for the fact that Mikasa probably never had a proper birthday party.

“My parents loved Mikasa,” Eren said, referring to Carla and Grisha, his parents from their previous lives. “But it wasn’t quite the same.” Mikasa was asleep in Eren’s arms, exhausted from exerting her dominance over the group of children in a game of tag, and carrying her to bed was Eren’s job since she refused to be carried by Levi.

Levi didn’t quite understand what Eren meant because he didn’t remember having parents or siblings from his previous life, and in this life, his grandparents raised him, but Levi nodded in agreement anyway.  

Eren gently placed Mikasa on the bed, and Levi tried to pull the blanket up to her chest, but even in her deep sleep Mikasa still slapped Levi’s hands away. Eren hold back his laugh, and Levi let him tucked Mikasa in.

“She doesn’t hate you.” Eren reassured Levi, but Levi crossed his arms and scowled.

“I don’t care.”

(He did.)

Eren didn’t look like he believed Levi.

“You’re her favorite, back then and now,” Levi said. He didn’t take it personally because he knew that was how Mikasa was.

“She respects you,” Eren said.

Levi looked skeptical.

“I definitely got that impression when she nearly bit my arms off when I tried to hold your hand today.”

It wasn’t something that happened often, but sometimes, the a piece of the Mikasa from the past would burn with anger behind her eyes, the same fire that Levi had seen back in that courtroom, and Mikasa would growl, “I’ll make you pay for hurting Eren.” But there were other moments, (and these were the moments that Levi remembered the most), where Eren would be on a trip so it was only Levi who was left to rub Mikasa’s back as she sobbed into her pillow. Levi didn’t know much about Mikasa’s past, but somehow he knew that the Mom and Dad she was calling for were not Grisha and Carla or the birth parents that abandoned her in this modern life. Levi wasn’t one with a lot of comforting words, so all he could do was silently stayed by her side and promised that he would raise her as best as he could. He and Mikasa never mentioned these moments, and Eren didn’t know about them. When the nightmares were gone, Mikasa acted brave again, trying to prove that those nightmares couldn’t get the best of her.

Eren tucked Mikasa’s bangs behind her ears. “I didn’t think of it until now, but back then, my parents asked her when her birthday was so we could all celebrate, but she told us celebrating her birthday was something she did with her parents, and they had passed away…We didn’t push the subject because we didn’t want to hurt her, but every year we celebrated my birthday, she must have felt lonely.”

“Don’t be stupid,” Levi sighed. “The idiot probably was thinking stupid things like not wanting to burden you with her personal problems. She had that hero complex going on.” There was a single strand on Mikasa’s forehead that Eren missed. Levi was tempted to move it but he didn’t.

 “Do you think she was trying to protect me?” Eren frowned, and Levi resisted the urge to roll his eyes. The peace of the modern world was getting to Eren—too much freedom was giving Eren room to do things such as feeling guilty for being a shitty brother and friend.

“Who knew what she was thinking?” Levi said. “Just worry about giving her a good life now.”

“Right.”

They headed out, and Levi glanced back to check on Mikasa out of habit. She was sleeping peacefully, smiling in her dreams, and the freedom of the modern world must have gotten to him too because he was thinking ridiculous things like wanting to be able to tuck Mikasa to bed one day.

“I mean it when I said she respects you,” Eren said as they headed downstairs to clean up. “She throws a lot of fits with me but she’s always quiet and responsible around you. Always wanting to prove herself to you.”

“She doesn’t have to prove anything,” Levi sighed, wondering if that was also a remnant from the past.

“Give her some time.”

“Sure.”

The evening breeze walked in from the open window of the kitchen, a warm, dry gust of wind. There were children’s laughter filtering in from the far neighbors, soft sounds underneath the clinking of the plates and glasses and the rushing of water in the sink. Levi carefully washed everything, making sure to use a different sponge for the cups.

“Petra’s little boy is Erwin,” Levi said. He didn’t know why he was telling Eren this. The words just left his mouth.

Behind Levi, Eren paused in his sweeping. “Which one?”

“The three year-old. The one who broke my favorite mug today.” Levi recalled the familiar blond hair swept to both sides, the blue eyes that were too large and childlike now but would sharpen into the hard gaze that Levi once knew.

“How did you know?” Eren asked gently, and Levi almost wanted to call Eren out for treating him like a fucking fragile thing. Except Levi’s voice was almost shaking as he said, “When he was crying and apologizing today, he relapsed into the past.”

Levi could never forget it, the lurching of his heart when those eyes turned to him, filled with regret.

_I’m sorry._

_It’s just a mug. It’s fine._

_I’m so sorry. I’m sorry for their deaths. I’m sorry for hurting you._

Levi had known then, that this was Erwin.

_It wasn’t your fault. They knew what they were getting into. I knew what was at stake fighting by your side._

“You didn’t kill him, Corporal.” Eren’s voice startled Levi from his thoughts.

“I let him die.” Levi turned off the water and wiped his hands on the towel. “And don’t call me that. I’m not a corporal anymore.” He squeezed the towel with much more force than necessary. Unsaid words pulled heavily at his throat, things that should have been said back then but weren’t.

“You did what you could. We all did.” A hand rubbed his back, and Levi wanted to jerk away because he wasn’t a little kid. But he didn’t.

It was an old argument, and Levi wasn’t going to get into it again. He knew what he did. He knew that he watched Erwin died slowly, the last thing he had said to Erwin was “ _You still haven’t finished fulfilling your duties, you big ass tree,”_ but what he truly wanted was for Erwin to live, not because the Survey Corp needed him because everyone was replaceable, but—

“He was a good friend to you,” Eren said. “He wouldn’t be mad at you for doing all you can.”

“He wasn’t my friend,” Levi grumbled.

Eren probably didn’t believe him.

 “I’ll do it right by him this time.” Levi promised, remembering the weak smile Erwin had given him when Levi wiped his tears away with a tissue. He had never seen the Erwin of his past smiled before, but he had time now to do things right.  

“You will.”

The laughter at the distance turned into screeches with the sound of a water hose. The wind ruffled the curtains again, tickling the wind chimes they hung in the back porch.  

“Are you happy?” Levi turned to Eren, the question familiar to his tongue, but he couldn’t help but ask for reassurance every day.

“I am,” Eren said. “Are you?”

Levi looked around their kitchen, remembering that just a few hours before, it was filled with people and laughter. Mikasa hovered over the cake, eyes watering because she never said she wanted the raspberry lemon cake with the frosted flowers on top, but Eren and Levi knew. Jean and Sasha were surprisingly Levi’s age, and even more surprisingly, married, but they were happy with no memories of the past. Armin was their son, going through a phase with his blond dyed hair, but behind the appearance of teenage rebellion still remained his brilliance and something that would develop into maturity once he was fully grown. Annie, Reiner and Berholdt’s child, just turned thirteen this year and was very busy with an embarrassing crush on Armin that everyone noticed but Armin himself. The best part of the day for Levi was seeing his old squad, Erd and Gunther and Auruo and Petra, all living and working and being happy with the lives they deserved in the past.

Sometimes, someone would look at him with sudden recognition in their eyes, and Levi would pause, wondering if they remembered. But then the moment would pass, and Levi let it go because it was enough that they were happy now.

They were all there, the people of Levi’s past, beautiful shells of different shapes washed by the waves to his side, sticking onto the dent in the sand made by his feet. He picked them up and cradled them in his hands.

The sun was warm.

“I’m happy,” Levi said, and Eren pulled him into a kiss.

“Good.” 


End file.
